Chase sat in silence and was looking through his phone. I wanted to comfort him by saying something, but all I could was just be near him. I sat next to Emily and listened to her. She was talking about some makeup products with Bethany, and some cool vegetarian recipes. She also talked about homecoming, which was coming up in two weeks. She wanted to go and look at dressed with Bethany, and Caroline.

They made plans to go this weekend to the mall, and other stores that I had never heard of.

I was so nervous about asking her out, but I really liked her. She always smelled like coconuts, and mangos. I could feel my palms get sweaty, like when I have to read a poem, or some part of a story in class. I wiped my hands, and sighed, and cleared my head.

I guess the whole table heard me sigh because they were looking at me.

"Everything okay, Jeong?"

I looked around, and Emily was smiling at me, and she pushed he hair back with on hand. I could smell the coconut when she did that.

"Y-yeah. I’m fine. " I smiled, and looked around, and put two fingers around my eyes, and stuck my tongue out.

Everyone chuckled when I did that.

"You’re so cute Jeong. " Emily said.

"I think you’re cute too." I said without thinking.

She went red, and looked down. I realized what I said, but held firm, and said, “Will you go out with me?"

She smiled, and at me, and said. "Yes. I’d be delighted to. " She leaned in, and I could feel my heart beat hard, as I leaned in and we kissed. Sam, being Sam, clapped, and shouted quietly. "Woop woop! . Way to go little Jeong." We held hands, and I was smiling like an idiot.

Chase smiled, and looked at me. He was still thinking about what just happened to him. Our kiss, and then he had to witness Emily, and I kissing. I felt awful for him, but did not want to bring it up, for feeling it would make it worse. I’m such an idiot.

I knew how he felt about me, and I kissed him to try to make the jocks feel guilty. I disregarded his feelings, and thought of only my own hatred of the jocks, and what they had done. Now, on top of all that I was now in a relationship with Emily, and Chase was single, and probably suffering from depression from his situation with his parents. They did not accept him, neither did the jocks, and probably others, but they were just indifferent towards him. I was probably his only friend, and that made me feel even worse.

Why does this thing called life have to be so complicated? Why cannot things be more simple? I sure hope things get simpler, or just easier to deal with later. I hate feeling so downtrodden over things like this. I feel so useless, and not in control. I just want to make people happy. I want people to be themselves, and not be judged by societal norms, and free from judgement like that gym commercial. I want to create a judgement free zone. But I’m just "Little Jeong." I may have to enlist the help of some "bigger" people.

Emily and I swapped phones, and put each other’s numbers in our phones. We took like three selfies, and put them as our wallpaper. Emily put the one of us both smiling on her instagram. We were now instagram official. Now everybody would know because it is instagram official. I did not care though. We kissed, and I went to French class. I was literally floating on clouds, and their felt like surreal. I was definitely in love.

French class was super fun because we read Le Petit Prince today, and we were assigned partners to take turns reading to each other in front of the teacher to practice our French accent. Our French teacher has so many Eiffel Towers in her room, and she always wears an Eiffel Tower brooch. I was paired up with Cody today. The teacher gave us pointers, and said I had the best French accent she has ever heard at this school. She said she could listen to me speak French all day, which was a little creepy, but it was good creepy. I took it as a compliment.

German class was boring as usual, but we actually got some practice speaking German, which was good because it made more bearable, when we can speak German about anything. I spoke about books with Anna. She likes mystery novels, and I told her I liked historical novels, and fantasy novels. Anna was super nice to everyone. She had thick rimmed glasses, and always had friends around her. She would dress differently everyday. One day she would dress as hipster with a beanie, and skinny jeans, and the next she would dress super preppy. You could not really place her into a category. She was a super smart too. She likes philosophy too. She was reading "Critique of Pure Reason by Kant. " She was trying to explain it to me, but I would just nod, and smile. I had no idea what she was talking about.

German class ended and I had free period, I had with Chase. We just near each other in silence. There is no doubt that he is still thinking about what happened. I got out the Korean book he gave me, and he smiled, and I began to learn Hangul. He helped me with the strokes. It was nice. We did that for the rest of free period.

When free period was over. I went to my locker, and someone had texted me. It was a picture of me kissing Chase. "Shit." I said, as I felt my heart drop to my butt.

-who is this? - I texted back, but got no reply. If that picture got out, or if it is already out. My chances with Emily will be crushed, just when things are in the beginning. I grabbed my books to take home, and went outside. I saw my mom, and tried to walk to the car quickly, but I was stopped by Emily.

"Hey, my super cute boyfriend. " She wrapped her arms around my neck. "I wanted to give you a good-bye kiss." We kissed, and I wrapped my arms around her. We kissed for about a minute, and what a minute. It felt like nothing else mattered. We were the only two in that minute.

She pulled away, and looked at me tenderly. I should tell her about Chase, but that would hurt her feelings. I did not want to do that. "I’ll text you later." I said.

"Okay, cutie. "

I walked and made it to car rider line , and I turned back.  She was watching me. "You have such a cute butt. " She yelled out, and I waved, and got into the car.

"who was that Jeong." My mother said waiting for the cars in front of her to move.

"That’s my girlfriend, Emily." I said, buckling up.

She smirked, and made and "Ooooing" sound.

"Mom. Please. I turned my head, and bushed, but I was smiling like an idiot.

"What my baby boy is growing up. So when do I get to meet her?"

"If you don’t embarrass me, you can meet her when I take her to homecoming. "

She looked at me, and huffed. " Jeong. That’s two weeks away. I need to meet her before that. I am your mother. I need to know who my children our dating, and if I approve or not. "

I did not say anything. I just kept thinking of that picture from that text. Who could it be? A bunch of different scenarios ran through my head, and none of them worked out in my favor. I got home, and took my pants off, and lied on bed, and stared at the wall, and took a nap. Maybe if I take a power nap, I feel better. I closed my eyes, and, eventually, I fell asleep. 

Next Chapter: Chapter 23